Rupert Murdoch's "New York Post, in a front page gaffe reminiscent of the 1948 headline wrongly announcing President Truman's defeat, proclaimed Tuesday that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry would select Rep. Dick Gephardt as his running mate. 'KERRY'S CHOICE,' read the headline over the page one 'exclusive' story. 'Dem picks Gephardt as VP candidate.' The story, which ran without a byline, was accompanied by a file photo of the Missouri congressman and the Massachusetts senator. But then Kerry announced his real choice Tuesday morning: North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. Post editor in chief Col Allan said in a statement that he made the decision to go with the Gephardt story based on information that turned out to be inaccurate. He did not elaborate. 'We unreservedly apologize to our readers for the mistake,' Allan said." LoL! What chumps! Did the Kerry campaign deliberately leak disinformation to the Post to expose their stupidity? We hope so!

Begala Slams Novak over Whitewater Lies
04-Jul-04
right wing media

On Meet the Press, Bob Traitor Novak declared: "I don't believe that the Whitewater case was ever fully investigated. People died, and I believe Bill Clinton beat the rap on Whitewater." On Crossfire's 7/2/04 show, Begala demanded Novak retract his statement "where you implied that President Clinton was involved in people's deaths over Whitewater? That's the most outrageous things I've heard said about an American president." Novak protested, but Begala persisted. Of course, Novak should be fired for outing Valerie Plame. In the meantime, let's keep exposing his outrageous lies. You go, Paul!

Tony Blankley "made his meaning plain: 'Soros and his family converted from their Jewish faith and survived the Holocaust (there was speculation that they may have collaborated with the Nazi's).' When I both called and e-mailed Blankley to ask him to defend this slander, he did not deny he sent the e-mail, nor did he specifically address its contents, though he expressed 'regret' that his statement on Hannity & Colmes was 'both incomplete and pregnant with a malicious implication I did not intend.' He claimed that, having read an assertion on the Internet that Soros collaborated with the Nazis, he 'started down that path and thought better of it in mid-sentence' in his appearance on Fox. What's unclear is why he continued to circulate this outrageous tale... long after he had time to rethink the comments he made for which he now expresses regret. It is hard to imagine a more immoral strategy to use against a Jewish opponent than to insinuate that his family were Nazi collaborators."

John Podesta Takes on Sean Hannity
14-Jun-04
right wing media

In an interview on June 3, American Progress CEO John Podesta [Bill Clinton's last Chief of Staff] said, "I think when you get so distant from the facts, as -- as guys like Limbaugh and Sean Hannity do, yeah, I think that tends to -- it kind of -- it tends to corrupt the dialogue." Apparently he struck a nerve with Fox News' Sean Hannity. Hannity challenged Podesta to "defend and explain one example where I -- where I said something that was so false." Tomorrow, Podesta will appear on Hannity and Colmes, which airs at 9PM on Fox News. If there is a specific Hannity falsehood you think he should mention, send it to pr@americanprogress.org.

How Murdoch and Drudge Ruined Alex Polier's Life to Smear Kerry
08-Jun-04
right wing media

Alexandra Polier was tried and convicted in the right-wing media of having an affair with John Kerry. She writes, "My name made its first appearance in the British tabloid, the Sun, on Friday, February 13. The 'exclusive', by Brian Flynn, purported to quote my father at home in Pennsylvania discussing the senator. It also quoted my mother as saying Kerry had once chased after me to be on his campaign. My mother was not even home when Flynn called, and Flynn didn't tell my father that he was interviewing him. Instead, he presented himself as a friend trying to get hold of me to talk about John Kerry. My father, a Republican who believed Kerry had flip-flopped on various issues, said, 'Oh, that sleazeball.'' Here's how it reappeared in Flynn's piece: 'There is no evidence the pair had an affair, but her father, Terry, 56, said: 'I think he's a sleazeball.'... I started out as an ambitious young woman inspired by politics and the media. I have ended up disenchanted with both."

Washington Times' Drops its Impersonation (Never very Convincing) of a Real Newspaper
16-May-04
right wing media

The only reason the "Washington Times" still exists at all is regular transfusions of cash from its owner, religious wacko Sun Myong Moon and regular readings from the paper by conservative hosts on C-SPAN and by rightwing pundits, which give it the credibility it does not deserve (they may as well just quote from Karl Rove's spin diary). Now that the sh*t has hit the fan for Bush & Co., the Times has pulled out the stops. The tone of its page one headlines have diverged so much from other papers that its real face is now obvious, while its "news reports," like this White House propaganda-laden example, read like a transcript from the latest Rush Limbaugh show.

Action Alert: Conflict at CNBC's New Dennis Miller Show
27-Jan-04
right wing media

From FAIR: "Dennis Miller's new CNBC political talk show hasn't even debuted yet, but it's already mixed up in a serious conflict of interest. The conflict-- brought to our attention by weblogger Roger Ailes (no relation, apparently, to the Fox News chief)-- began with the show's hiring of Mike Murphy as a consulting producer. The problem isn't that Murphy is a well-known Republican campaign consultant whose past clients have included John McCain, Jeb Bush and the 1992 Bush/Quayle campaign; the problem is that Mike Murphy already has a job. Murphy, who was a key political advisor in Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2003 campaign for governor of California, still works for Schwarzenegger... Please write to CNBC and ask them what they intend to do about the conflict of interest posed by Dennis Miller's producer working for a politician who happens to be a guest on Miller's first show. Contact: CNBC 2200 Fletcher Avenue Fort Lee, NJ 07024 Phone: 201-585-2622 info@CNBC.com"

AP: "Dennis Miller has usually been happy to spray his acerbic wit across the political spectrum, but things will be different on his new CNBC talk program. Bush is in a mock-free zone. 'I like him,' Miller explained. 'I'm going to give him a pass. I take care of my friends'... This is the Miller who has appeared at fund-raisers for Bush, ridden with the president on Air Force One, sat in the gallery at last week's State of the Union speech and was even talked about as a Republican senatorial candidate in California... 'People have said to me, `What happened to Dennis?' Franken said. 'Nothing happened to Dennis. He's the same Dennis. He's always had a conservative streak on certain issues'... The liberal media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting accused CNBC of a conflict of interest in hiring GOP consultant Mike Murphy, an adviser to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a producer for Miller's show. Schwarzenegger is scheduled to be a guest on Miller's first show Monday."

Right-wing talk show host Charles Goyette has been a Goldwater conservative since he was a boy, and has a long career in conservative politics. But his opposition to Bush's Iraq War lies cost him his career with Clearchannel. "They couldn't really fire me, at least without paying me a substantial sum of money, but I was certainly belittled on the air for opposing the war. The other KFYI talk-show hosts-so bloodthirsty that they made Bush apologists and superhawks Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity sound moderate-vilified me almost daily... So I'm a talk-show war casualty. My contract expires in a few more months and-my iconoclasm being noted-it is not likely it will be renewed. Among the survivors at my station: one host who wanted to nuke Afghanistan (he bills himself as "your voice of reason and moderation")... at Clear Channel, there's only one word for the belief that talk radio is still a fair and fearless search for the truth: "Un-Bull-ieveable!"

How Many Strikes Before George Will is OUT?
02-Jan-04
right wing media

Norman Solomon writes about George Will's latest scandal - taking $25,000 from Conrad Black. "In October 1980, Will appeared on Nightline to praise Ronald Reagan's 'thoroughbred performance' in a debate with incumbent President Jimmy Carter. But Will did not disclose to viewers that he'd helped coach Reagan for the debate - and, in the process, had read Carter briefing materials stolen from the White House... During the 1996 campaign, Will caught some criticism for commenting on the presidential race while his second wife, Mari Maseng Will, was a senior staffer for the Dole campaign... [In 2000], Will met with George W. Bush just before [he] was to appear on ABC's This Week. Later, in a column (3/4/01), Will admitted that he'd met with Bush to preview questions, not wanting to 'ambush him with unfamiliar material.' In the meeting, Will provided Bush with a 3-by-5 card containing a crucial question he would later ask the candidate on the air." We demand Will's firing!

CNBC Creates Prime Time Political Show for Failed Rightwinger Dennis Miller
02-Nov-03
right wing media

CNBC hired failed comedian Dennis"Miller to a multiyear deal for the political chat show, set to begin in January. Miller said he would work four nights a week at 9 p.m. ET... He said he's looking forward to competing in the political talk realm with people like Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, who Miller said 'runs a good show.'... Miller, a registered Republican, has become increasingly known for his political views. He bashed anti-war activists on a 'Tonight' show appearance last spring, calling filmmaker Michael Moore a 'stupid moron' for criticizing Bush at the Academy Awards. A few months later, Miller was the opening act at a Bush fund-raiser in California, earning him a ride on Air Force One and the president's limousine. He said of Bush's Democratic opponents: 'I haven't seen a starting nine like that since the '62 Mets.'" This is a massive and illegal corporate contribution to Bush's re-campaign. We demand EQUAL TIME ON CNBC for a progressive Democrat!

Rightwing columnist Kathleen Parker is a Bush clone - she shoots first, and asks questions later. Luckily, Parker only shoots words, not nuclear weapons. But Parker crossed the line from opinion to incitement to murder by quoting a friend who declared "These bastards like Clark and Kerry and that incipient ass, Dean, and Gephardt and Kucinich and that absolute mental midget Sharpton, race baiter, should all be lined up and shot." Imagine if one of Parker's deranged readers decided to carry out that wish??? It COULD happen here - think JFK, MLK, RFK, and RWR. Parker first tried to absolve herself by "pardoning" her friend for being "a little emotional." But that wasn't good enough, so she actually scrubbed "shot" and inserted "slapped" (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/kathleenparker/kp20031101.shtml). But MakeThemAccountable.com copied the page before it was scrubbed. Demand that she be fired by the Heritage Foundation: phone 202.546.4400, fax 202.546.8328, email info@heritage.org

David Brooks has risen to power up the ladder of far-right journalism. At the Wall Street Journal, he rose to editor of the neo-fascist op-ed page; at Rupert Murdoch's far-right Weekly Standard, he serves as Senior Editor. But now he is trying to sell his poison as "mainstream," most prominently as Rupert Murdoch's mole on the op-ed page of the NY Times, where he relentlessly attacks Democrats - one more reason to cancel your subscription. Even so, we were shocked to hear Brooks on NPR - which is funded by YOU, the listener - call distinguished Democratic Senators John Edwards and John Kerry "DISGRACEFUL" for voting against Bush's $87 billion to occupy Iraq. We recognize Brooks' right to spout right-wing rhetoric in privately-funded forums, but we are OUTRAGED that NPR would use MEMBER dollars for vicious attacks on two of our finest Senators and presidential candidates. E-mail atc@npr.org and demand the firing of Brooks - or the cancellation of your membership.

The Idiocy and Lies of 'Conservative' Talk Radio
09-Oct-03
right wing media

Talk Show Host Doug Basham writes: "Let's say Iraq is the world's lone super power, and America is an impoverished, 3rd world country. President Saddam Hussein decides he wants to reward the corporations that put him in power, and award them no-bid contracts in America to rebuild it. Swaggering up to the podium in his flight suit, Saddam bellows 'F--- George Bush, and the UN he wouldn't ride in on, but now is trying to mount, realizing how badly he blew it. We're taking him out!' On the advice of his chief advisor, Tarik Aziz, who tells him 'you don't roll out a new product in August', Hussein starts marketing his war in September. He starts saying things like 'We know America has developed and used WMD's.' He cites Japan as an example. He says 'We know America has gassed its own people.' He cites Waco as an example... He then leans even closer to the camera and whispers 'torture chambers', and cites conservative talk radio and Fox News as examples."

NPR's Terry Gross to Grover Norquist: 'Did You Just Compare the Estate Tax With the Holocaust?'
03-Oct-03
right wing media

From NPR's Fresh Air: "GROVER NORQUIST: [Discussing the death tax] The argument that some who play to the politics of hate and class division will say it's only 2% or 5% in the near future of Americans likely to have to pay that tax. I mean, that's the morality of the Holocaust, it's only a small percentage, it's not you it's somebody else. And this country, people who may not make, earning a lot of money, at the centerpiece of their lives, they may have other things to focus on, they just say it's not just, if you've paid taxes on your income government should leave you alone, not tax you again. TERRY GROSS: Did you just compare the estate tax with the Holocaust?" "No," Norquist said, before comparing the two again (and throwing in South African Apartheid.) Gross' follow up was: "So you see taxes as being, the way they are now a terrible discrimination against the wealthy, comparable to the kind of discrimination of say, the Holocaust?"

Harvard Student Who Helped Research Franken's Book Blasts David Horowitz
20-Sep-03
right wing media

"In response to David Horowitz's attack on Harvard, Al Franken and the Harvard students who helped Mr. Franken write his latest book, I would like to point out that many of Mr. Horowitz's assertions are either incorrect or blatant distortions of the truth.... Mr. Horowitz seeks to prove that liberals are vastly more powerful than conservatives by comparing the endowments of Harvard and the Heritage Foundation. What Mr. Horowitz neglects to point out is that all of the Heritage foundation's money is dedicated to furthering conservative causes, while Harvard spends billions every year on such 'liberal' things as animal testing, nuclear research, defense policy analysis and the like. Harvard also employs a range of prominent conservatives, including Harvey Mansfield and the Rev. Peter Gomes, and has produced conservatives such as William Kristol, Alan Keyes, George W. Bush and Bill O'Reilly. I await a similar list of liberals currently at or products of the Heritage Foundation." Read on!

David Sirota writes, "What truly allows the White House distortions to go unreported - or reported as fact - is the Republican Party's not-so-secret weapon: a 24-hour television, radio and newspaper advertisement, otherwise known as Fox News, Clear Channel radio and the Washington Times. These national "news organizations" are owned by Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch, longtime GOP benefactors Tom and R. Steven Hicks, and Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, respectively. These men are right-wing ideologues who take their radical agenda as seriously as their bottom lines... These ideologues understand that, devoid of effective ideas, conservatives can win by playing dirty -- namely, by infiltrating non-partisan journalism with attack machines that use the pretense of objectivity as a cloak for pressing a radical right-wing agenda and diverting critical reporting away from the Bush Administration."

AP reports: "MSNBC on Monday fired Michael Savage (real name 'Michael Weiner') for anti-gay comments. The popular radio talk show host who did a weekend TV show for the cable channel referred to an unidentified caller to his show Saturday as a 'sodomite' and said he should 'get AIDS and die.' 'His comments were extremely inappropriate and the decision was an easy one,' MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines said... GLAAD spokeswoman Cathy Renna said of Savage's firing: 'It's about time. 'This latest attack made the clearest case for why Savage has no place on any reputable news network. MSNBC witnessed firsthand exactly the kind of verbal assaults GLAAD's been warning them about for the past five months, and to their credit, they backed up their promises to hold Savage accountable."

"On Friday, June 27th, 2003 the National Arbitration Forum issued a decision in the domain name dispute filed by Talk Radio Networks, Inc. (TRN) of Oregon against SavageStupidity.com, a web site devoted to documenting and critiquing the public statements of popular conservative radio and TV talk show host Michael Savage. TRN had contended that the SavageStupidity.com domain name was 'confusingly similar' to the 'Michael Savage' trademark and various domain names owned by TRN and used in association with 'The Savage Nation', which the company syndicate to over three hundred shows nationwide. Panelist Karl V. Fink (Ret.), appointed by the NAF to decide the dispute, denied TRN's request to assume possession of the domain name, stating that the SavageStupidity.com domain name is 'not confusingly similar', both due to the inclusion of 'stupidity' in the domain name and the generic nature of the terms 'savage' and 'stupidity.'"

Dennis Miller -- We Liken Him to the Stars Who Ratted on their Friends during the McCarthy Era
29-Jun-03
right wing media

From Reuters: "A new voice has emerged in the re-election campaign of Resident Bush, that of Dennis Miller, who is gaining a reputation as a conservative comic by attacking Democrats with biting humor. Miller flew on Air Force One from San Francisco to Los Angeles with the president on Friday, and later gave a stand-up routine at a Bush fund-raiser in Los Angeles... He likened the nine Democratic presidential candidates running to unseat Bush in 2004 to the 1962 New York Mets, perennial losers, and called them an 'empty-headed scrum'... He had a special barb for one candidate, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who has questioned the Iraq war, comparing him to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister who followed a policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the years before World War II. 'He can roll up his sleeves all he wants at public events, but as long as we see that heart tattoo with Neville Chamberlain's name on his right forearms, he's never going anywhere,' Miller said."

AP reports: "More than 50 people protested the appearance of former U.S. Marine Col. Oliver North at a fund-raiser for the Bradenton Christian School, with some of the activists calling North's appearance 'sickening.' North, a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, was the keynote speaker at Tuesday night's event... 'Here these people say they are Christian and they support a man who funded today's terrorists and those who were running drugs to our kids,' said Rev. Don Thompson, founder of Coalition of Concerned Patriots, a 30-member activist group... Dick and Ellen Graham held American flags and signs supporting 'Ollie.' 'He was great for us then and he is great for us now,' Ellen Graham said. 'He fought for our freedom so we'll fight for him.'" 'Fighting for freedom' is selling arms to the Iranian sponsors of the Hezbollah terrorists that bombed the US Marine Barracks in Lebanon? There is only one word for Ollie supporters like these: Morons.

Deeper and Higher By the Day: Shoveling through the Propaganda Manure Pile
16-Apr-03
right wing media

Cheryl Seal Reports, "To hear the media tell it, the rightwing 'patriot' movement is leaving the moderates and liberals in the dust. Well, it's a big fat lie, perpetuated by propagandists who think that belief in this lie will force people to the right through an 'if you can't beat 'em join 'em' capitulation. Here are the facts: From September 2002 to March 2003, the number of Americans tuning into the evening news editions of the conservative to rightwing news sources represented by NBC, FOX, CNN, and MSNBC combined was 12.81 million. By contrast, the number of Americans tuning into the only two moderate (Dan Rather) to mildly liberal (Peter Jennings) evening news shows on CBS and ABC was a whopping 19.35 million. That means only 3 in 8 Americans were turning to conservative news, even though there are twice as many stations to choose from."

MSNBC Promotes Cult Behind Michael Savage
11-Mar-03
right wing media

TakeBackTheMedia.com writes, "In their press about their new Michael Savage TV show, MSNBC proudly tells you his radio show airs nationally on the Talk Radio Network. Yet, MSNBC, an investigative and news gathering organization, WAS NOT SAVVY ENOUGH to find out that it was owned and operated by a dangerous religious cult in Southern OR, which is using Savage as a mouthpiece for their agenda. Michael Savage's radio show was given a national platform by Talk Radio Network based in Southern OR. Talk Radio Network was OWNED and OPERATED by cult leader Roy Masters, his family and their Foundation of Human Understanding Roy Masters has spent over 40 years daily spewing hate against Women, Gays, the Government and Liberals on radio stations on which he has purchased time and through his Talk Radio Network. He spent the late 70's, complete 80's and most of the 90's talking about the Apocalypse that was forthcoming in America--and that the only safe place to be was with him--in Grants Pass, OR"

Major Advertisers Shun Savage TV Show
10-Mar-03
right wing media

Gay.com writes, "A letter-writing campaign aimed at pressuring MSNBC into dropping talk radio host Michael Savage's television show has stirred reaction from two major advertisers in advance of the show's Saturday debut. Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble said they will not advertise on the show, called 'Savage Nation.' 'Savage's show is clearly against our content guidelines, so it was an easy decision,' said P&G spokeswoman Gretchen Mutchnick. Kraft spokeswoman Mary Jane Kincaid also confirmed that her company would not be advertising on the show. 'It definitely doesn't meet our standards,' she said. According to MSNBC spokesman Alan Winnikoff, the network has received thousands of critical letters and e-mails about the conservative Bronx-born Savage. 'We're asking people to wait and watch the show before jumping to conclusions,' he said." Why should we wait? Savage's views are no mystery - he has spewed his hate for years!

'Savage' Attacks on Right Wing TV
10-Mar-03
right wing media

Mike Hersh writes, "MSNBC perfects 'inhumane cloning' as it mimics right wing nut FAUX News. This by firing sane host Phil Donahue, replacing him with Michael 'Savage' Weiner, and adding right wingers Dick Armey, Joe 'Scarface' Scarborough and John 'Not Exactly Mutual' Fund. The NY Post - hardly a liberal bastion - reports: 'MSNBC denies that last week's firing of liberal Phil Donahue and the hiring of right-of-centrists like Savage, Jesse Ventura, Dick Armey and Joe Scarborough signals an attempt to go talking-head to talking-head with the red-hot Fox News Channel.'... If we all boycott sponsors and tell them why that will hurt MSNBC. If we all enclose a note with our cable bill demanding another cartoon channel to replace MSNBC - the now redundant FAUX FOX - that too will hurt MSNBC. Even if only tiny ratings will lance the boil known as the Michael Savage Show, we can still do it. Refuse to watch."

"Can you name a Texas-based multinational company that is facing a Department of Justice investigation, lawsuits for inappropriate business practices, a flurry of criticism in the mainstream press, and a bill in congress to curb its impact on the industry? Did you say Enron? Try again. This 800 lb. Texas gorilla has spent $30 billion since 1996 to buy its way into becoming the world's largest radio broadcaster, concert promoter, and outdoor advertising firm. Before passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, a company could not own more than 40 radio stations in the entire country. With the Act's sweeping relaxation of ownership limits, Clear Channel now owns approximately 1225 radio stations in 300 cities and dominates the audience share in 100 of 112 major areas..."

Molly Ivins writes, "George Will saw fit to include in his latest Newsweek column this joke: 'How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried.' That was certainly amusing. One million, four hundred thousand French soldiers were killed during World War I. As a result, there weren't many Frenchmen left to fight in World War II. Nevertheless, 100,000 French soldiers lost their lives trying to stop Hitler. On behalf of every one of those 100,000 men, I would like to thank Mr. Will for his clever joke. They were out-manned, out-gunned, out-generaled and, above all, out-tanked. They got slaughtered, but they stood and they fought. Ha-ha, how funny... For eighteen months after that execrable defeat, the United States of America continued to have cordial diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany" - and Grandpa Bush was getting rich financing them.

"The latest hire by the cable news network MSNBC...is Michael Savage, a radio talkshow host noted for his unabashed bigotry. Savage is scheduled to have his own weekly one-hour show on MSNBC beginning in March. Savage routinely refers to non-white countries as 'turd world nations' and charges that the U.S. 'is being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives.' In a recent broadcast he justified ethnic slurs as a national security tool: 'We need racist stereotypes right now of our enemy in order to encourage our warriors to kill the enemy,' he explained...Discussing student volunteers distributing food to the homeless in San Francisco, Savage declared that 'the girls from Branson [school] can go in and maybe get raped...because they seem to like the excitement of it. There's always the thrill and possibility they'll be raped in a dumpster while giving out a turkey sandwich'." Write the MSNBC President: Erik.Sorenson@MSNBC.com, or call (201) 583-5000!

Here is a noteworthy report from WashPost: "Bush was at Camp David when he heard the news about the shuttle. White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., also at Camp David, had been watching the shuttle landing on television, and at 9:15 a.m. informed Bush that NASA had lost contact with Columbia." In a story entitled "Shuttle Cover-up?," NewsMax declared that this "raises a big red flag... It is odd that the White House chief of staff would watch a shuttle landing. Such a routine event - early on a Saturday morning, in the midst of Blair, U.N. inspections, Colin Powell's upcoming intelligence revelations to the Security Council - seems to be something that a White House big shot would pay no attention to. If he had a heads-up that something might have been amiss, then we need to be told. And it will come out - eventually." But not with the help of NewsMax - they profusely apologized to their readers for raising the slightest doubt about Saint George.

Dr. Laura Should Resign
01-Jan-03
right wing media

Writes Gerald Plessner: "I once believed that bad news came in threes, that when two celebrities died one after another, the death of another celebrity could be expected the next day or two. Hopefully that will happen soon with resignations. 'Dr. Laura' Schlessinger should do the honorable thing and join Cardinal Bernard Law and Senator Trent Lott in withdrawing from her role as the hard-talking mother to the weak and indecisive. Laura's mother Yolanda Schlessinger was found in her Beverly Hills condominium recently, a possible homicide victim. Her body lay undiscovered for perhaps two months before her neighbors became concerned about her disappearance. The elder Mrs. Schlessinger and her daughter had been estranged for as many as 18 years."

No More Mr. Nice Guy: Confront the Right Wing Media
05-Dec-02
right wing media

Gene Lyons writes: "If Democrats want a realistic chance of returning to power, they'll have to confront the entrenched power of the right-wing media and its cowering acolytes among the Washington press. Tom Daschle and Al Gore tried recently, with groaningly predictable results. What both episodes demonstrate is that polite, reasoned discourse won't cut it. First came Daschle, who complained about the 'shrill tone' of conservative talk radio. 'What happens when Rush Limbaugh attacks those of us in public life is that people aren't just content to listen. People want to act because they get emotional,' he said 'and the threats to those of us in public life go up dramatically, against us and against our families, and it's very disconcerting.' ...Limbaugh had a field day mocking the South Dakotan....A draft avoider himself, Limbaugh calls Daschle, an Air Force veteran, 'Hanoi Tom.' He's repeatedly accused him of an 'attempt to sabotage the war on terrorism' for political advantage."

NYTimes.com reports: "The revelation that Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, the self-proclaimed fair and balanced news channel, secretly gave advice to the White House after the Sept. 11 attacks was less shocking than it was liberating... Ever since Mr. Ailes changed jobs from Republican strategist to news executive, he has demanded to be treated as an unbiased journalist, not a conservative spokesman. But the cable channel he controls has an undisguised ideological agenda, which has made his protestations a bit puzzling....By tirelessly insisting that all other cable or network news organizations are driven by a liberal bias, Mr. Ailes casts his own network as the centrist voice of reason. In some ways, his tactics worked: last year, CNN was so worried about its own image and defecting viewers that it tried to hire the conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh." So the "compassionate conservative" who claims "a good heart" needed a spinmeister's advice after 911? Bush is a Tin Man!

As Baltimore's fiery young Democratic mayor Martin O'Malley headed for work this week, he happened to catch local radio hosts Chip Franklin and Rob Douglas doing what radio pundits do best: ragging, safe and unseen in their booths, on liberal politicians. This time they went too far, accusing O'Malley of indifference after a drug-dealer-set fatal house fire that claimed several children's lives. O'Malley, who has a brand new baby himself and had been devastated by the tragedy, drove straight to the radio station and confronted the whiners on air. Like all typical media morons, they continued to needle him on air. But O'Malley held his own, and on his way out the door, said, "Gentlemen, if you enjoyed that, come outside after the show, and I'll kick your ass." Right on Martin for gettin' in licks for media-maligned liberals everywhere!

Brent Bozell has an agenda - and it isn't cleaning up TV. Like all corporate rightwing toadies, he hides his real agenda behind a slickly packaged front outfit: "Parent's TV". After all, who would suspect someone purporting to recommend good kids' shows? But Bozell also seeks to dictate the viewer's political leanings. Thus while Seventh Heaven and Bernie Mac (upper middle class black people are OK) are "good," any programming depicting anything liberal is "bad" - including Will and Grace,. Friends, CSI, Big Brother, Boston Public and That 70s Show. But Bozell's routine is just a hook to draw Mom and Pop America into the rightwing propaganda net like so many mackerel. Bozell is one of the architects of the "liberal media myth" and the founder of not one but two rightwing propaganda organs: Media Research Center and the Conservative Communications Center, where he urges readers to discount ANYTHING heard on the airwaves but the GOP party line.

Bozell's latest spin job almost pleads with the reader to _please_ still believe all that stuff we concocted about the "liberal media!" "The prospects of war dominate the current focus of political news and Democrats are looking for a way out. They want to change the issue agenda back to domestic and economic issues, where they feel they have the natural advantage in offering compassionate subsidies for whatever ails you. During the summer months, Democrats decided to make a major push against, which is to say, make political hay out of corporate corruption...Network reporters picked up the talking points and repeated them. The opposing view was either boiled in skepticism or ignored. A major MRC review of economic coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox documented how the network news stars organized their stories almost entirely around liberal themes and arguments." Will someone please pass the barf bag?

Schroeder Win Is Greeted by Vicious Attacks from Vitriolic U.S. Bush Media
22-Sep-02
right wing media

The Bush folks and their paid toadies in the media tried their darnedest to derail Schroeder's reelection bid in Germany. Schroeder made it clear he opposes the Bush war. So, when Schroeder's Justice Minister Herta Daubler-Gmelin made a hard-hitting - and very true - comparision between Bush and Hitler's "wag the dogs of war" strategies to evade domestic issues, the Bush propaganda machine went into high gear. Now, with the German people giving Schroeder the thumbs up, the Bush media is being far more vicious and damaging to US-German relations than Herta ever dreamed of being. The first article to appear in the NYT after Schroeder's win predicted his government won't last a year. This was eventually toned down but remained aggressively nasty. Will Bush add Germany to his Axis of Evil and seek a "Regime Change" - Venezuela style?

Rightwing Wardens of Corporate Media Take Hatchet to Peter Jennings for Daring to Stray from the Propaganda Script
11-Sep-02
right wing media

A rightwing front outfit funded by the Heritage Foundation types and calling themselves the 'Media Research Center' (what a joke!!!) has gone after Peter Jennings like a junk yard dog. Peter Jennings, about the only network newsperson with any guts or honesty, questioned the War on Terror scam long before it was safe to do so. Now, his 'Search for America' special has the Freeper thugs at MRC up in arms because he DARED to point out that the founding fathers failed miserably on the race issue, failing to illegalize slavery or grant equal rights in any way. As you read through what Jennings actually says and how the bogus "media critics" at MRC twist and misrepresent his words, you will get a very clear picture of the difference between a great journalist (Jennings) and the Goebbels brigade.

The Big Lie About the Teachers Union and 9-11
06-Sep-02
right wing media

Spinsanity writes, "The National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, has been widely denounced for supposedly calling on educators not to blame the Sept. 11 attacks on al-Qaida. But this is a manufactured falsehood created by a kind of assembly line for political myths. The story is familiar: A distorted claim is fed into the echo chamber, where it is increasingly twisted as it is repeated over and over until it becomes conventional wisdom. The controversy was created by an Aug. 19 article on Page 1 of the Washington Times about a Web site created by the NEA's Health Information Network. The site was designed to help schools plan lessons for the first anniversary of Sept. 11... Reporter Ellen Sorokin claimed that the NEA 'is suggesting to teachers that they be careful on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks not to 'suggest any group is responsible' for the terrorist hijackings that killed more than 3,000 people.'" But the NEA said NO SUCH THING.

Propaganda Alert: US Newswire Stuffed with Rightwing 'Snowflakes,' while CBS Wags the Dog with 'The Agency'
26-Aug-02
right wing media

At several hundred dollars a pop per press release, the rightwing press releases are flying into USN like Donald Rumsfeld's "snowflakes." Christie Todd Whitman is one of the biggest subscribers — every time someone in the EPA farts, it's written up and sent to USN in a pathetic effort to make the agency appear to be something other than than a game show giveaway for corporations. The deal, of course, is to try to induce some idiot editor at a legitimate newspaper to pick up the "story" and run it as a news piece. This way, Whitman, et al. get a free ad. Plus, it's ever so much more deceptive to release your propaganda as "news." Cheryl Seal gives a mini-lesson in the latest rightwing propaganda efforts.

The Daily Brew writes, "Why did corporate America decide it was OK to lie to their investors, the SEC, and the public? How did corporate America get the idea that they could tell huge whoppers without getting caught? Who is responsible for giving them the idea that deceit was a sure fire path to riches? That one's easy. Rush Limbaugh. From 1992 until today, Limbaugh has been without question the single most influential political commentator in America. After making possible the GOP's 1994 congressional takeover, Limbaugh was named an honorary member. It was Limbaugh's GOP majority who then changed the law in 1995, shielding outside accountants, law firms, CEOs and directors from liability for false corporate reporting. Limbaugh and his 20 million listeners cheered them on every step of the way as they passed the bill over President Clinton's veto. In the past five years since the GOP congress made that law, over 1,000 public companies have been forced to restate misleading reports."

America's sweetheart Katie Couric gave our favorite right-wing psycho Ann Coulter a drubbing over her pathological lies on the usually staid Today show. Coulter should learn a lesson that in a battle of wits, you should never show up unarmed! Couric obviously won the bout because she had the truth and sanity on her side, but the very fact that the Today Show gave "the blonde tele-bimbo" air time unfortunately boosted the rankings of her latest book of mindless liberal-bashing trash. When will the mainstream media stop giving this incompetent, ignorant bile-spewing harpy a forum???

"We, the undersigned, hereby affirm our disgust and dismay at the commercial support given Michael Savage by corporate America, and pledge to boycott any and all companies who purchase advertising on 'The Savage Nation' (a complete list of which is available via the SavageStupidity.Com web site on the 'Boycott' page). We support the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Radio and other organizations actively promoting a boycott of Savage Nation advertisers. 'The content is an unbroken stream of hate and chauvinism directed against women, people of color, liberals, immigrants and in particular people of Middle Eastern heritage and people of the Muslim faith. We condemn this message of hate...' said Tom Nelson, spokesman for the Coalition Against Hate Radio." Sign the petition!

Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the Wicked Witch of the Waves, will solve any moral dilemma on the air in three minutes or less using one of five different stock rightwing "solutions": Stay home with your kids (but don't, God forbid, accept welfare!), go to church every Sunday, vote Republican, don't be gay, salute the flag and don't ask questions. Yep - rightwing bandaids in five different color-coordinated shades! Here's our own irreverent look "inside the Dr. Laura Show"!

Wicked Witch of the Waves Dr. Laura Takes Big Bucks to be a Moonie Spokesmodel!
16-May-02
right wing media

Now why doesn't this surprise us: Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the self-righteous queen of pop shrinks who professes to solve the moral dilemmas of complete strangers, sight unseen, in three minutes or less in her daily radio slot, is in reality willing to be a highly-paid spokesmodel for Rev. Sun Myung Moon! Afterall, both Moon and Schlessinger profess to be something akin to the Second Coming. Though she's accepting a $35,000 speaking fee from Moon to appear at a dinner "rally" in support of Moon's rightwing rag, "Washington Times," Dr. L's handlers say "she doesn't know Moon from Adam." Maybe not from Adam, but she sure as heck knows him from SOMEWHERE. And we bet the relationship goes back a ways, at that. Talk about an unholier-than-thou alliance! (For info about Moon's tentacles in the Religious Right, the GOP and Bushes, see http://www.geocities.com/alanjpakula/triple2.html#Moon)

O'Reilly vs. Drudge (and Limbaugh)
14-May-02
right wing media

"Bill O'Reilly probably shouldn't have expected a friendly reception from his rough and unruly new colleagues on the conservative AM dial last week when he launched his own nationally syndicated radio program. But he surely didn't expect to get ambushed so quickly. On the eve of his premiere, Internet troublemaker (and AM radio host) Matt Drudge, reporting with his typically over-the-top banner headlines, charged that the radio syndicate Westwood One had to pay six-figure sums to get some major market stations to air O'Reilly's two-hour talk program. Drudge dubbed the practice 'Talkola' (a sort of pay-for-say system)… Westwood One's CEO… denied Drudge's charge… O'Reilly soon appeared on Don Imus' morning talk show, deadpanning, 'I just want to tell everybody that Matt Drudge is smoking crack -- right now, in South Miami Beach on Washington Avenue ... And the authorities should know it.' (Drudge denied the allegation.) O'Reilly added, 'There is no other cure than to kill Matt Drudge.'"

Rightwing pundit Andrew Sullivan was a contract writer for the NY Times, until the Times opted not to renew his contract. Now Sullivan - a truly confused guy anyway (how can you be rightwing AND gay?) is trying to turn the Times' nonrenewal into a case of persecution and martyrdom. Yeah, right - like he was the first writer in the world not to have a contract renewed. Actually, he MAY be the first rightwing pundit to be canned. We can name PLENTY of leftwingers who really WERE casualities of the corporate propaganda machine, as well as all the nonpartisan investigative journalists in Kristina Borjesson's "Into the Buzzsaw" who were canned for asking tough questions. Guess who is helping trump up Sullivan's claims of being "barred" from the Times? Rightwingnut Rich Lowry - the same guy who recently had to apologize to Muslims for suggesting the U.S. nuke Mecca and other holy cities. 'Nuff said.

Rush Limbaugh is STILL a Big Idiot
12-May-02
right wing media

Carolyn Kay of MakeThemAccountable.com recently complained to Chicago's WLS about Rush Limbaugh's right-wing propaganda. Zemira Z. Jones, the General Manager of WLS, told Kay that Limbaugh has "changed." So Kay tuned in for an hour of Rush, and came to the unsurprising conclusion that Rush is STILL a big idiot.

Liars Figure and Figures Lie
28-Apr-02
right wing media

The old adage, "Liars figure and figures lie," is getting a new twist as the right-wing think tank, Heritage Foundation is "providing reporters with raw data and showing them how to analyze it, essentially offering to serve as a newsroom's own research department. If a journalist can't do the analysis, Heritage staff will do it for the reporter." Brant Houston, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism cautions: " I would call up the Heritage Foundation for their take [on a story] and consider them a strong and relevant conservative voice," Houston said. "But to actually have them teaching me how to use and look at data, I just wouldn't do it." Unfortunately, Houston is a party of one - the rest of the Washington media corps is delighted to have the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy write their stories for them.

Brock Reveals the 'Mighty Wurlitzer' of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
16-Apr-02
right wing media

"With all that ideological money, institutional heft, coordination, and credentialing, the right has perfected what the CIA used to call a 'mighty Wurlitzer' - a propaganda machine that can hone a fact or a lie, broadcast it, and have it echoed and recycled in Fox News commentary, in Washington Times news stories, in Wall Street Journal editorials, by myriad right-wing pundits, by Heritage seminars and briefing papers, and in congressional hearings and speeches. Privatization of Social Security, vouchers for school, Vince Foster's supposed murder, Hillary's secret sex life, you name it - the right's mighty Wurlitzer can ensure that a message is broadcast across the county, echoed in national and local news, and reverberated in the speeches of respectable academics as well as rabid politicians... There is nothing on the progressive side of town remotely competitive with this. There is no progressive TV network and few progressive pundits." So writes Bob Borosage in the American Prospect

Ann 'All Blond and No Brains' Coulter, not Halle Berry, Is the Bimbo Token
01-Apr-02
right wing media

We already knew that Ann Coulter was tasteless and unimaginative, with a writing style reminiscent of the dish pages of a high school yearbook. We already knew she was so desperately starved for the approval of her rightwingnut neanderthal male "peers" (does this term work with knuckledraggers?) that she would do and say just about anything. But her trashing of Halle Berry hits a new low. As Coulter scoffs at Berry's winning as mere tokenism and Berry's fight to break the glass ceiling for black actresses, she has failed look in the mirror. Berry is rewarded because of excellence and true talent. But Coulter, who lacks both of these qualities, is herself a mere token on the literary scene - all blond hair and long legs - who fits the role of "real writer" about as well as that pink tutu fits Arnold.

Democrats.com has released a new Internet game that challenges players to try to pick up arch-conservative commentator Ann Coulter. It was reported in the Washington Post that Coulter, who was fired from her position as a columnist for the National Review for inflaming racial animosities, is now involved with a man she met on the streets of New York City. The Post reported that although Coulter called on Americans to go to war against all Islamic countries and to "kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity," Coulter's new boyfriend is himself a Muslim. "While we wish the new couple all the best," says Democrats.com co-founder David Lytel, "the report also inspired in us an attempt to recreate the conversation that might have transpired in the first encounter between this gentleman and such a well-known and articulate xenophobe as Ms. Coulter. The result is the game we built here."

Muslims Demand Apology for Idiotic Editorial in Rightwing 'National Review' that Called for U.S. to Nuke Arab Cities
17-Mar-02
right wing media

Rich Lowry, the editor of the pitiful rightwing rag "The National Review" (any mag that actually ever paid Ann Coulter for her junior high school level drivel, or John 'Kill Chelsea' Derbyshire is pitiful) wrote an editorial on March 7 suggesting that nuking Mecca, Baghdad, and other Arab cities was a good idea. “Mecca seems extreme, of course, but then again few people would die and it would send a signal," wrote Lowry. Now, when called on the carpet for his hatespeak, Lowry's cowardly and lame response is that he was just being "subtly sarcastic." Trouble is, rightwing writers like Coulter and Lowry have neither the wit nor creativity to be clever, let alone subtly sarcastic, so we don't buy his excuse. We think he was testing the water to see how far into right field he could push and how much anti-Muslim anger he could stir up amongst his knuckle-dragging readers.

Eric Alterman Kicks Right Wing Butt
08-Mar-02
right wing media

"I couldn't decide which of the many McCarthyite wing-nuts currently accusing ex-lovers and comrades of being liars, gay-bashers, anti-Semites and spouse-abusers merited an entire column. None of them did. But hey, I got a column out of just trying to figure it out.... (and) Speaking of verbal diarrhea, Scaife-funded David Horowitz has just published another of his entertainingly insane pamphlets; this one joining fellow McCarthyite Andrew Sullivan in blaming the 'Fifth Column' left for September 11. Last time I mentioned Horowitz, he responded, 'Eric Alterman apparently thinks lying is a form of mooning.' I don't know what that means, but it does confirm my long-held belief that one Panther-loving Commie-turned-reactionary-racebaiter sure does spend a lot of time with his head up his ass."

After the Clinton-Lay Fiasco, Matt Drudge is the Laughingstock of Washington
01-Mar-02
right wing media

This week, Gene Lyons exposed Matt Drudge as the source of the lies circulating throughout the media about Bill Clinton's BOGUS ties to Ken Lay - a night at the Lincoln Bedroom, a golf game, Mack McLarty on Enron's board. The list of "Matt's Maledictions" has grown so long that Drudge is now the laughingstock of DC. HotlineScoop's Rob Miller writes, "I'm unwilling to let Bill Clinton off so easily. What I want to know is how Clinton was let off scot-free last year after serving alcohol to an underage Jenna Bush. Better yet, why isn't anyone talking about his attempts to screw that Canadian figure skating pair out of a gold medal? (French judge, indeed! We all know Clinton was the real brains behind the operation.) And -– just between you and me -- I strongly suspect he's the real reason all these damned boy bands have become endemic to the music biz. Now, the real question is, how do I get my theories publicized? If only there happened to be a Web site I could contact ..." You go, Rob!

Fate of FreeRepublic.com Rests in the Hands of Federal Courts
06-Feb-02
right wing media

"On Monday, 11 February 2002, the Ninth District Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco, will convene to hear oral arguments for Washington Post and Los Angeles Times v. FreeRepublic.com LLC... At issue is the propensity of FreeRepublic.com and its owner, Jim Robinson, to allow the posting of whole-length articles from news organizations nationwide--a policy the Post and Times, respectively, assert infringe upon the intellectual property rights of both the news corporations and of individual writers. At stake is a tort complaint of $1,000,000 lodged against Mr. Robinson, and the very future of FreeRepublic.com... In simple terms, a judgement against FreeRepublic.com in the coming months will spell an Error 404 message" for the site. It will certainly be poetic justice if a site devoted to the sanctification of private property should be put out of business for stealing the property of others.

The Wit and Wisdom (NOT) of Ann 'I Lied to the FBI' Coulter, Fascistic Hatemonger
05-Feb-02
right wing media

Ann Coulter's latest raving: "When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors." A Dems.com member wrote us: "Coulter is evidently calling liberals pro-Taliban. I can recall signing a petition criticizing the Taliban for their treatment of women, and approved of the UN sanctions against them, all the while that Coulter was hot-footing it after Bill Clinton [in the witchhunt]. Now she threatens to murder liberals as Pro-Taliban? Coulter is a sick, unAmerican, human-in-name-only homicidal animal who isn't fit to live on the same soil as TRUE American patriots, liberals and conservatives alike. Three out of four Manhattanites are considered democrats or 'liberals.' Is she suggesting that 3 out of 4 victims of the WTC collapses deserved what they got?"

John Fund: The Hypocritical Anti-Abortion Pundit Who Slimed Clinton and Blumenthal, and then Bedded His Ex-Lover's Young Daughter, and Allegedly Manipulated Her Abortion
21-Jan-02
right wing media

From Am-Pol: "While the editors leave it to our readers to reach their own conclusions, they believe that her assertions concerning Fund are not only credible but may be convincingly supported. In many ways, we feel the most damning comment by Ms. Pillsbury-Foster is her assertion that Fund 'has used slander, lies, and the power of his position to hide his actions from friends and the public.' This sounds practically identical to accusations Fund himself hurled at President Bill Clinton at the height of the wave of orchestrated and phony 'scandals' that were used to hobble his administration and falsely impeach him. Now that push appears to have come to shove, it would not surprise us if Fund acts just as Ms. Pillsbury-Foster claims the notorious talking head did with respect to the TALK magazine article to which she refers, and attempt to circle the wagons by going to his best pals in the press -- especially the Washington gossip corps -- to attempt to bully, demean and defame [her daughter] Ms. Pillsbury."

Right-wing columnist Andrew Sullivan's latest obsession is blaming Clinton for 9-11, by embracing every lie circulated by the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Sullivan claims Clinton soon knew Bin Laden was behind the 1993 WTC bombing - a complete lie. (The earliest hints appeared 3 years later, and even now remain murky.) He claims Clinton rejected a Sudanese offer in 1996 to "hand over Bin Laden to the US" - another complete lie. (Sudan would turn Bin Laden over only to the Saudis - who adamantly refused to take him - and only in return for US embracing the Islamic government's enslavement of black Christians.) Sullivan's version of history scrubs Clinton's many attempts to "get" Bin Laden - denounced at the time as "wagging the dog" by Republicans - and his efforts to strengthen anti-terrorism and airline safety laws - all blocked by Republicans feeding at corporate troughs. Sullivan is a hate-mongering serial liar, and his editors at the New York Times and Salon should fire him now.

MSNBC Hires Alan Keyes for Prime Time
08-Jan-02
right wing media

According to some idiot named Paula Bernstein of the AP, "cable news networks look to broaden their political points of view." How exactly? Simple - by stretching the political spectrum ever further to the right, while leaving the "left" firmly anchored to the likes of the Clinton-hating liberal-bashing Chris Matthews. Here's the latest outrage: MSNBC has hired Alan Keyes for their 10 pm show! The worst insult comes from MSNBC president and general manager Erik Sorenson. "It was not our goal to necessarily go out and find a commentator who was conservative. We were looking to find somebody who would appeal to smart, young viewers." Yeah, RIGHT! Here's a simple cure to the problem of the right-wing media: Boycott ALL of the corporate media!

Bill O'Reilly Scrubs Vietnam from His Life Story
08-Jan-02
right wing media

"Nobody who watches television can doubt that Bill O'Reilly is the leader of the pack over at Fox News where he hosts the Rupert Murdoch journalistic centerpiece, 'The O'Reilly Factor,' a talk show where intelligent people yell and scream at each other to the delight of the host. O'Reilly also has three current books in print, 'The O'Reilly Factor,' 'The No Spin Zone,' and a fictional account of the TV news racket called 'Those Who Trespass.' Not once in any of the three books is the word Vietnam mentioned." Why? Because like all the other right-wing chicken hawks, O'Reilly dodged the draft. So writes Jackie Corr in BuzzFlash.

Reverend Moon's Washington Times Hatches Yet Another Lie, And The Media Again Repeats It As Fact
25-Nov-01
right wing media

"On November 7, former President Bill Clinton gave a speech at Georgetown University on foreign policy and globalization in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11. Within 24 hours, Clinton's words had been twisted into the nonsensical allegation that the former president had blamed slavery and America's treatment of Native Americans for the attacks. Even though this myth has been repeatedly debunked by Bob Somerby's Daily Howler, among others, it continues to surface on television, radio and op-ed pages. The history of how this deception spread shows how newspaper editors and pundits can manufacture lasting stories about political opponents from nothing more than a few strokes of the pen...The propagation of the Washington Times's distorted version of Clinton's speech reveals how pundits, desperate for controversy, can create a 'fact' simply by repeating it often enough to make it conventional wisdom."

CNN is another arm of the Bush Propaganda Machine
17-Nov-01
right wing media

Writes Stephanie Salter in the San Franciso Chronicle: "Between the September 11 terrorist attacks and the so-called war in Afghanistan, a once-great news operation seems to be morphing into the Atlanta- based annex of the West Wing -- the real one in the White House, not the Emmy- winning series on CBS. Although CNN anchors and reporters have not yet joined their counterparts at Fox in wearing American flag lapel pins, the network of Walter Isaacson seems more like Spin City than the network of Ted Turner -- the one place you knew you could trust to deliver all the unadulterated facts." Earlier this year, new
CNN chief Isaacson (a staunch righwinger like his boss AOL's Steve Case) met with Congressional Republicans to ask them what CNN can do to become even MORE conservative! And don't forget that they were in talks with Rush Limbaugh for a possible anchor desk job, before he admitted to going deaf.

Democrats.com Releases New Tool to Fight the Right: The Spin Control Machine Relabels Right Wing Web Sites
07-Nov-01
right wing media

Democrats.com is proud to announce that we have automated the process of reclaiming the language of politics from the right wing fringe. Our new Spin Control Machine seizes the words and phrases the far right has been trying to appropriate to legitimize their own extremist agenda and neutralizes them. Come with us as we visit rightwingloonies.com, rightwingfruitcakes.com, rightwingnutcases.com, rightwingnuts.com, rightwingvitriol.com, rightwingcrazies.com and rightwingfanatics.com and expose them for what they really are.

Protest The Cancellation Of Talk Show Host Peter Werbe By Right Wing Station
19-Oct-01
right wing media

"After broadcasting for a year on a Santa Cruz AM station, left-of-center talk show host, Peter Werbe, had his program suddenly yanked from KOMY-AM without even notification to him or his network…The station never sought ads for the program, but the management said it aired Peter's program to balance its bevy of right-wing shows. However, even without any promotion, the show had a growing audience as evidenced by the high number of calls Peter's program received daily from the station's broadcast area...KOMY owner's mother, Kay Zwerling, the power behind the throne, similarly denounced the show and Peter during an on-air editorial, October 16…Please call the station at 831-475-1080 or email KOMY owner, Michael Zwerling, at mz@ksco.com and tell them politely this assault on the 1st Amendment is unacceptable and inconsistent with their FCC operating license." So reports the Democratic Underground.

Limbaugh's Attack on Clinton is Predictable - and Wrong
10-Oct-01
right wing media

Why, in light of all the bi-partisanship necessary to achieve effective anti-terrorism legislation, did Rush Limbaugh attempt to assign Bill Clinton blame for Osama bin Laden and his atrocities of 9/11?

Rush Is Going Deaf
08-Oct-01
right wing media

"Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, who commands an audience of 22 million listeners a week, veered away Monday from discussion of the U.S. air strikes on Afghanistan to drop a bombshell of his own -- telling his audience he has lost his hearing and may never regain it. 'I am, for all practical purposes, deaf,' Limbaugh, 50, said, although he vowed to continue working. 'I have lost my ability to hear. I have not yet lost my ability to communicate,' he said. Limbaugh, one of the most controversial figures in talk radio, added, 'My desire is to continue doing this, and there are an infinite ways of continuing. I mean I'm doing this program today, in effect total deafness.'" Rush's true believers could be forgiven for wondering whether God has concluded that Rush misused the talent Rush claims God lent him...

Andrew Sullivan Stabs Truth - and America - in the Back
04-Oct-01
right wing media

"It has taken the most perverted wing-nut of them all, the right-wing figure Andrew Sullivan, to lead them to the place where we knew they were all headed all along - and to revive the 'stab-in-the-back' hate perfected by the Nazis in the 1920's and 1930's. Sullivan blames September 11 on - yes, you guessed it - Bill Clinton. Sullivan's accusatory piece, published in Sunday's Times of London, is a farrago of lies, distortions, and right-wing paranoia, all of it easily exposed as false. While it attempts to raise questions about Clinton's performance, Sullivan's drivel actually raises questions only about Andrew's loyalty to America and the fight against terrorism. Andrew Sullivan does not want America - or decency - to win. He wants only for his own right-wing buddies to win - and will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve his end. He is a journalistic terrorist of the right, a suicide operator advancing his own demented ideology." So writes Media Whores Online.

Ann Coulter is Too Extreme for National Review, But Not the Washington Times
02-Oct-01
right wing media

Shortly after the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, syndicated columnist Ann Coulter declared: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." This was too much even for the National Review, which cancelled their subscription to her column. But her extremist views are still perfectly welcome at Rev. Moon's Washington Times, as well as "Rivera Live," "Larry King Live" and "Hannity & Colmes," which would NEVER invite outspoken progressives like us. Coulter called the National Review editors "girly-boys" and cried censorship. Hey Ann - we support you 100%. We think EVERY right-wing publication should feature your idiotic ideas, to expose what these publications REALLY stand for.

Even During our National Crisis, Rightwingers Can't Stop their Vicious Attacks on the Clintons
27-Sep-01
right wing media

During our national crisis, Democrats are supporting national unity and refraining from policy criticisms - let alone personal attacks on Republican leaders. Yet the female furies of the Republican right seize every opportunity to crash verbal airliners into the twin towers of their own hatred, Bill and Hillary Clinton. Michelle Malkin's attack on Hillary Clinton in the Washington Times is simply breathtaking in its viciousness. Maybe it's time to tell Rev. Sun Myung Moon to do us all a favor and take his hatred back to Korea - and take his paid hatemongers with him. It's certainly time to tell the rest of the media to stop giving the Moon- and Scaife-funded army of Clinton-haters infinite airtime.

Wall Street Journal's Moralist-in-Chief Exposed As A Hypocrite Who Impregnated His Old Girlfriend's Daughter
06-Sep-01
right wing media

Tamara Baker at American Politics Journal writes: "Yet another GOP moral arbiter has been caught with his pants down (I know, I know; Republican exposed as hypocrite, sun rises in east. But I digress...). This time, the exposed Republican hypocrite is none other than the Wall Street Journal's moralist-in-chief, Council for National Policy member (and allegedly fervent anti-abortionist) John Fund. Fund went and impregnated the daughter of an old girlfriend of his -- and then John Fund, that staunch pro-lifer, looked the other way when she aborted his child." A true hypocrite, Fund would go on Rivera Live and Hardball to crow about the Juanita Broaddrick rape allegations against Clinton (first broke by the WSJ editors). He did this even after Broaddrick's story was discredited, especially since she swore in two previous statements that nothing of the kind had occurred. Moreover, Broaddrick could not even establish the month of the alleged assault, so an NBC reporter set a month for her.

Hear The John Fund Tapes
06-Sep-01
right wing media

"The following is a transcription of the tape of Morgan Pillsbury and John Fund. Mr. Fund makes
mention of how he is being threatened by Melinda. He apparently believes that Melinda has no right to
be angry for his deceiving her for three years, all the while sleeping with, and impregnating her oldest
child. For those who doubt the veracity of the transcript or wish to hear the anger and seething hostility
of John Fund, Please listen to the audio tape." Investigative reporter John Connolly adds, "So there should be no confusion, this tape was made legally and given to me by Morgan Pillsbury. Ms.
Pillsbury also gave me her permission to use her name, as did her mother Melinda Pillsbury-Foster."

Gene Lyons On The Myth Of The 'Left-Wing Media' -- And A Case Of The Right Wing Smear Machine In Action
04-Sep-01
right wing media

"On Aug. 10, 1997, Drudge posted an item on his infamous Web site the very night before Sid [Blumenthal] started work at the White House claiming that court records documented 'Blumenthal's violence against his wife.' The allegation was categorically false; to my knowledge, Blumenthal has never raised his hand to his wife Jacqueline, nor to any other woman. No court records ever existed. Furious, Blumenthal and his wife filed suit. Drudge quickly retracted and apologized, but the damage was done...Witnesses told of a 1994 dinner party at a conservative function during which Wall Street Journal pundit John Fund told the wife-beating story, even claiming his newspaper had copies of the nonexistent records…Fund himself confirmed the episode, although he strenuously denies passing the ugly gossip to Drudge. So who did? That turned into an expensive question. Indirectly funded from the deep pockets of Richard Mellon Scaife, Drudge stonewalled, refusing to reveal his sources."

"The abundance of conservatives and Republicans at Fox News Channel does not seem to be a coincidence. In 1996, Andrew Kirtzman, a respected New York City cable news reporter, was interviewed for a job with Fox and says that management wanted to know what his political affiliation was. 'They were afraid I was a Democrat,' he told the Village Voice (10/15/96). When Kirtzman refused to tell Fox his party ID, 'all employment discussion ended'…Pundit Mara Liasson--who is touted as an on-air 'liberal' by Fox executives--sits on the board of the conservative human-rights group Freedom House; New York magazine (11/17/97) cited a Fox insider as saying that Liasson assured president Roger Ailes before being hired that she was a Republican...Even Fox's 'left-right' debate show, Hannity & Colmes…can't shake the impression of resembling a Harlem Globetrotters game in which everyone knows which side is supposed to win." So writes Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting 's Seth Ackerman.

Scaifemax Calls Us 'Marxist Thugs'
22-Aug-01
right wing media

Over at NewsMax.com, they can dish it out - but they sure can't take it! Our little post about the FReepers visiting the White House sent them into outer space. It's not surprising that Newsmax accuses us of being 'Marxist', after all it is run by Chris Ruddy, Richard Mellon Scaife's favorite reporter. The deranged Scaife sees a commie around every corner. Brill's Content reported that Scaife even sent one of his Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters off on a wild goose chase looking for Russian troops in the Allegheny forest! (Enter 'brills' in our .Compass search engine) And Ruddy pushed the paranoid Vince Foster conspiracy theories, even penning a book. Of course, gullible Newsmax readers will eat it up, since right-wing paranoia is contagious. Consider the nutty Freeper cult. But just so the record is clear, we admit - we are NOT Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist-Trotskyites. Rather, we are slaves to the infallible doctrines of the never-to-be-forgotten Enver Hoxha. (Who? Never mind!)

NewsMax Lies About Hillary
14-Aug-01
right wing media

On May 26, NewsMax reported that Gold Star Mothers - women whose sons or daughters were killed in military combat - visited DC to to lobby their representatives. "According to NewsMax.com there was only one politician in DC who refused to meet with these ladies. None other than the Queen of New York herself, The Hildebeast, Hillary Clinton. She refused repeated requests to meet with the Gold Star Mothers. She is too busy meeting and supporting the militant prisoners in Puerto Rico. She wants our Navy out of the Caribbean." (http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2001/5/26/73332) Guess what - it's a lie. Hey NewsMax - quit lying about the Clintons!

The Daily Howler Exposes The Fraud That Is Bill Sammon And His Regnery-Published Hatchet Job 'At Any Cost'
15-Jul-01
right wing media

In a four-part series at 'The Daily Howler', Bob Somerby lays bare the lies and dissembling in Bill Sammon's "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried To Steal The Election.' Writes Somerby: "Well, Sammon's book is now in the stores, and it's found on the best-seller lists as well. And in it, Sammon does what he likes to do best—he lies to abused readers about Gore...What exactly should free people do about character assassins like Sammon? About journalists who take $28 from thousands of people, then lie in their readers' faces? …How do we deal with dissemblers like Sammon, who so profoundly corrupt our public discourse?" Bill Sammon is a reporter for Reverend Moon 's Washington Times. This book is but the latest in a series of right-wing hatchet jobs penned by Moonie Times reporters and published by the far-right Regnery press. Of course Sammon has been a favored guest on Fox News and Hardball. (Be sure to click on the 'Back' button at the bottom of the article to read the rest of the series.)

The American Prospect recently exposed a right-wing media campaign to smear Tom Daschle. Predictably, Rush went on the attack - but his own words prove his guilt. "Limbaugh says he doesn't 'coordinate strategy,' but he does get together with John Fund and Rich Lowry and perhaps others to 'talk in generics, about how best to respond to these insane liberal attacks.' Is this not strategizing, or am I missing something? Or -- to borrow a favorite conservative line -- does it depend on what the meaning of 'coordinate' is?" So writes Chris Mooney.

Parents Demand That Interviews Of Children Be Removed From The Stossel Propaganda Show
27-Jun-01
right wing media

This Washington Post article further shows that columnist Tim Cuprisin is defending the indefensible in Stossel. "Brad Neal, a Los Angeles real estate broker, was pleased that his 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son were among a group of students interviewed for an ABC News special on the environment. But Neal grew angry when he saw that the questioner was John Stossel, the controversial correspondent who often argues that environmental claims are overblown. Neal and six other parents revoked permission yesterday for their children to be used in a Stossel special that airs Friday." As Howard Kurtz recounts, "ABC News reprimanded Stossel and suspended his producer last year after he said in a 20/20 report that tests conducted for the network had found no pesticide residue on either regular or organically grown produce. No such tests had been done, and Stossel later apologized."

My Morning Encounter With Right-wing Radio
17-Jun-01
right wing media

"This morning, I'm driving to work, and I have the radio tuned to the station that carries Rush 'ditto-butt' Limbaugh. From 6:00 to 10:00 they have two morons named Donnie and Eddie on, from right here on Cape Cod. One of them admitted the other day that he is totally flummoxed by voice mail menus. About 3 minutes after that, he allowed as to how every time he buys a camera, he loses it almost immediately. This is the mental caliber we're talking about here. So I'm listening, and they're all in a lather about the recent news that pressure-treated lumber might contain something that might someday cause someone to contract some sort of cancer. I've come into it in the middle, but they are trying mightily to debunk a study done by some "green" group, that said pressure-treated lumber is BA-AAD..." So begins Dogfolks' morning encounter with right-wing radio.

"Bush supporters are bringing a bitter jihad of retaliation against Chuy's, the Austin restaurant at which the [Bush twins] violated the law -- and the bar manager who did the right thing and phoned police. The attacks against Mia Lawrence, the bar manager, are being orchestrated on the Internet. Her address, date of birth, drivers license and registration information, physical description, and even birth information about her infant child have been posted on freerepublic.com, along with calls for punitive actions. Freerepublic.com website's sysop pulled some of the information... but the info has circulated and been posted to other Internet forums... Bush supporters have obliquely and directly called for Lawrence to be punished -- publicly humiliated, fired from her job, impoverished, and exposed to risky and dangerous situations. A freerepublic.com member who uses the screen name "tracer" recommended using her private info for identity theft:" We demand an FBI investigation!

Here's a case study in how lies are spread by the right-wing media. First, Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times writes incomprehensible prose which seems to blame Democrats.com for starting the rumor about Jeb & Cynthia - a rumor that was around for months before Democrats.com began looking into the story. Then Phil Brennan of NewsMax republishes that lie, while adding a lot of nasty prose. Hey Phil, get your facts straight - we didn't start this rumor, we just investigated it. And when the rumor proves true - as our reliable sources insist - we'll gladly accept your congratulations!

New 'Washington Chronicle' Newspaper -- Publisher Says "No Mellons Or Moons! I Hope We Have More Credibility Than The Moonie Times!"
23-May-01
right wing media

Henry Hewes, a wealthy New Yorker, has begun publishing the Washington Chronicle, a newspaper targeted specifically for members of Congress. When Hewes ran for the NY Senate in '94, PFAW reported that he is "anti-choice, supports school prayer and vouchers; opposes gays in the military, 'taxpayer funding of obscene art;' gay rights and domestic partnership." To get an idea just how far right Hewes is, check out 'bobwalshforcongress.com', where Hewes is listed as the campaign director. Hewes was the NY state chairman for Pat Robertson's '88 presidential bid. Apparently, it is now a stigma to be associated with Richard Mellon Scaife or Reverend Moon, the owner of the Washington Times. Hewes "did say that the investment group includes no ideological groups or foundations, and no 'Mellons or Moons!'" But the Chronicle does run articles by Scaife-funded think tanks like the Cato Institute. Hewes added, "I hope that we'll have a greater kind of credibility than The Washington Times."

It Figures - Bill Sammon's Propaganda Screed Is Published By Regnery
23-May-01
right wing media

Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Washington Times and Insight magazine have been the source of many scurrilous attacks on Democrats. Most notoriously, these outlets colluded with Ken Starr's office to leak many of the distorted (if not false) stories about the Clintons. This propaganda network also includes Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, right-wing radio flaks such as Limbaugh and web sites like the Drudge Report. It comes as no surprise that Washington Times reporter Bill Sammon's new right-wing hatchet job "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election" is printed by Regnery Publishing. Regnery is THE right-wing publisher that churns out Clinton hating tomes by Ann Coulter, Barbara Olson, R. Emmett Tyrell and Gary Aldrich. Regnery has published other 'Moonie' Times writers, including Bill Gertz. Like Sammon, Gertz dishonestly blamed Clinton/Gore for Republican wrongdoings – namely Chinagate. (The Cox Congressional Report revealed that the secrets were lost during the Reagan-Bush years).

Led By Colin Powell's son, FCC Paves Way For More Media Consolidation
22-Apr-01
right wing media

"Federal regulators voted yesterday (3-1) to allow any of the nation's four largest television networks to acquire two smaller rivals, a decision that clears the way for CBS's parent company, Viacom Inc., to retain ownership of the UPN network…the latest in a string of regulatory and legal victories for the world's largest media companies, which have rapidly consolidated in recent years and are now straining at federal rules that limit their size." In addition, "Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia barred the FCC from enforcing its station-ownership limit, pending the outcome of a court challenge to the rule filed by Viacom and Fox…The same court recently struck down an FCC rule limiting cable companies from serving more than 30 percent of homes that subscribe to satellite and cable." Contrary to the views of FCC Chairman Michael Powell (the son of Colin Powell), the FCC's two Democrats expressed concern about growing media concentration."

MSNBC's Jeanette Walls dished the following about Matt Drudge last year: "He likes to have sex with eggs. He likes them smeared all over naked male bodies." Walls aptly remarked that it is "hypocritical that a man who has become a spokesman of the far right has led a lifestyle at odds with the ultra-conservative values he supposedly embraces...[it is] ironic that a man whose entire career has been based on revealing the sexual behavior of others has a sexual history of his own that he now seems at pains to hide."

From Brill's Content: "Some UPI employees, such as the doyenne of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas, who had stuck with the service through its decline, resigned to protest the purchase [by Moon's News World]." Check out the Moonie background of UPI's head Arnaud de Borchgrave, especially as former editor-in-chief of the Washington Times. De Borchgrave also worked at the Richard Mellon Scaife-financed right wing think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). UPI now provides news items for such Scaife-linked outfits as Chris Ruddy's NewsMax and the Drudge Report. "De Borchgrave's replacement, at least for now, is News World CEO Douglas Joo, probably not a good omen to those concerned about UPI's editorial independence." At the Washington Times, reporters and editors resigned over Moon's editorial interference. The article also mentions how Moon has donated $1 million to the Bush Library, and Bush Sr.'s speeches at Moonie events.

How The Right Wing Think Tanks Control The Sound Bite Media
31-Mar-01
right wing media

"How the right wing has come to dominate public policy debates is one of the most significant political stories of the last two decades. The right-wing success stems largely from a variety of aggressive strategies used by well-financed think tanks and policy institutes to influence the media's coverage of political and economic issues. The effectiveness of groups such as the Manhattan Institute, the Capital Research Center, the National Taxpayers Union, The Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Citizens for a Sound Economy, and the Washington Legal Foundation (whose activities are detailed in this book) has sometimes resulted in misleading and one-sided reporting that has given the
electorate a distorted view of many important issues." Read the first in a series of excerpts from Trudy Lieberman's "Slanting the Story: the Forces that Shape the News."

Rush vs. Freepers
16-Mar-01
right wing media

Poor Rush. "I'm going through the general e-mail box ... and all of a sudden I'm getting spammed ... And all it says in the subject line is "Cellucci." And I said "What the hell is this?" I hate getting spam. It bugs me, because it means that people aren't writing of their own volition and it means a bunch of robots are being programmed to do it by some controlling figure. Some Pied Piper is telling these people what to do so I figure it's gotta be the Freepers." Ouch! Them's fightin' words!

Despite the hundreds of e-mails sent to Amazon.com in protest of a vile article on National Review Online, Amazon.com, which is losing a billion dollars a year, won't pull its afffiliate ad from the right wing online publication. BuzzFlash.com and Democrats.com readers respond to Amazon.com's craven lack of decency and condoning of an implicit call to murder.

Fight Back Against the Loathsome Tactics and Language of the Right Wing Press
27-Feb-01
right wing media

You can strike a blow against the vile right wing press. Boycott the National Review's advertisers to protest John Derbyshire's "death to Chelsea" column.

The National Review Hasn't Taken Down the Scurrilous Hate-Chelsea Column
26-Feb-01
right wing media

Last week, we highlighted an article in the National Review, written by a British journalist, that suggested America would be better off with Chelsea Clinton dead. Despite all the outrage over this monstrous "column," the National Review is still posting the felonious piece. Here are some more letters of disgust to the author of the vile article. By the way, when will the Secret Service pay Mr. Derbyshire a visit? Just asking.

More on the National Review's Death Wish on Chelsea Clinton
23-Feb-01
right wing media

"If the National Review, that icon of the right, ever had any respectability, it is gone with columnist and contributing editor John Derbyshire's veiled call for and justification of killing Bill and Hillary Clinton's daughter, Chelsea." So writes Bev Conover in the Online Journal.

Should the Secret Service Investigate a Right Wing 'Commentator' Who Wants Chelsea Clinton Dead?
22-Feb-01
right wing media

Jeez, it's hard for us to even print the headline above. But these sick thoughts and homicidal intentions are coming from a "journalist" for the National Review. Not only should the Secret Service give him a visit -- but while they're at it, they should talk to the editors of the National Review. After all, they are still posting the column on their website, in spite of widespread protests.

Democrats.com Launches New Right Wing Nuts Translation Service
09-Feb-01
right wing media

As a public service to the Internet community Democrats.com today began the slow but important process of reclaiming the English language from right wing extremists. In response to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's declaration that he is a proud member of FreeRepublic.com, Democrats.com has now pointed the domain name RightWingNuts.com to the FreeRepublic site. FreeRepublic, which both hosts and incites violent words and actions against political leaders with whom they disagree, includes threats on the life of former President Clinton and an active discussion on how best to disrupt Clinton's future public appearances. Don't believe us? Check out the new and improved RightWingNuts.com!

Financer of Anti-Clinton 'Investigations' Sent Out Reporter to Search for Russian Invaders in Pennsylvania Forest
08-Feb-01
right wing media

No, we're not making this up. Dangerously eccentric Richard Mellon Scaife, a Clinton obsessor extraordinaire and financer of the infamous "Arkansas Project," sent out a reporter to find Russian troops who he thought were invading the U.S. The man's a fool, but a dangerous fool. He was the key backer of the journalistic, investigative and legal efforts to bring Clinton down. He was almost successful. You know he's still working with the likes of Ted Olson, our next Solicitor General, and the Ken Starr proteges who are now manning the White House Office of Legal Counsel. Hey, Richard, you were wrong! The Russians landed in Upstate New York and got lost. Quick, send your reporter back out again -- and why don't you go with him.

Who Should Give a Damn About David Hale? No One!
03-Jan-01
right wing media

The right wing has a new cause celebre, one of the Ken Starr stooges who was used to try and entrap Clinton. Now the right wingers want to spring the dirtbag from jail. It's almost funny to see them show so much compassion for a common criminal. Let him rot!

Words Do Matter
28-Dec-00
right wing media

We ignore the scurrilus Orwellian language of the right wing -- and the Bush campaign -- at our peril. Words do matter, especially the virulent, bitter diatribes of the true believers. They are masters of character assassination, and we ignore them at great risk.

If you haven't taken a look at the right wing Internet sites, start here with NewsMax. It will help you understand the pathology at work among the militant right. Don't blow this appeal off as the rantings of a person in the late stages of mad cow disease -- although that may be the case. The militant right, which Bush unleashed in Florida, is just this side of fascist. They don't believe in any law or standard of conduct other than crushing whatever they are obsessed with. They would be the ones boiling the pots at the Salem Witch Trials, that's for sure. Unfortunately, we either take them on or see our nation of laws and civil conduct torn to shreds by zealots with no ethics who believe that the bully wins -- and they might have in Florida.